University of Minnesota

America's longest river bisects the main campus of this 2,700-acre spread occupying four tracts in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul. "The U", home to more than 50,000 students and around 3,400 faculty members, draws on an endowment that was worth $2.2 billion in 2006, but enrolled no students in its first 16 years owing to politics and the Civil War.